cakewalk

then you should go immediately and get a several scoops of zabaglione. or coconut. or strawberry. i'm serious. And then try their ginger sorbet. Mmmm. My favorite. And then their canteloupe sorbet.

I still think it's intresting that people who mention "liver" as their most hated food never can tell (or just can't tell?) what kind of liver was prepared, nor how it was prepared. And I maintain it was probably old beef liver, and cooked very badly. Ah, but that's because those of us who hate liver know instinctively of what we speak. But seriously, for me it was (and still is) thus: Beef liver. (Shudder.) In order to be kosher, it has to be broiled. To death. And then afterwards my mother would fry it with onions and God knows what else. Truly revolting, I can't even swallow my coffee now. Excuse me. But I love chopped liver.

You took the words right outta my mouth! I was borderline anemic as a child (and as an adult, come to think of it). Liver was the remedy. Tejon, you described liver's awfulness just perfectly. I remember I'd be outside playing and my mother would call us up for supper, and if I smelled liver when I got out of the elevator I just turned around and went back downstairs. Disgusting stuff.

I'll second that emotion!

I did not know that. You can still occasionally find a restaurant in Jerusalem that will display a sign saying, "Cahn lo shotim Pepsi." ("We don't drink Pepsi here.") But you don't see it that much any more.

Thanks, Suzanne. I knew if anyone could restore my faith, it would be you.

Textures, yes. And burnt stuff. Looks like eight out of ten posts talk about crispy, burnt, browned, well-done, crusty, stuff stuck at the bottom of the pot, etc. Of course, if you burned the whole dish you'd just throw it out. I gues it's the contrast thing. But the burnt stuff really is the best.

I can't believe what I'm reading here.

Well I'll wear the dunce's cap with you on this one (and I'm sure I'll wear it alone on several others). I found out the other night that bad cheese will absolutely NOT stay in one's stomach. But there must be a better way to figure this out before reaching that stage, no? With most foods, if it smells bad I won't eat it. Cheese doesn't really work that way.

Kudos to the manager on this one. As for the "gentlemen," they were truly being piggish. And it's my guess that their piggishness is not limited to food. Yuk.

"#5 on the list reads: 'We do not cut items into smaller pieces. If you're old enough to read this you're old enough to cut your own food.' We have PLENTY of plastic knives for those so inclined." Maybe the wording could be changed here? It really isn't nice. Not the decision that you don't cut items into smaller pieces, but the way you say it. There's a lot of unnecessary aggression here, no? "That's when I remembered her: she'd asked for some scones to be cut into quarters. She was feeding a bunch of kids and was being cheap. She wound up buying a dozen day old muffins instead." Cheap? Or perhaps on a budget? Okay, I'll say it -- poor? I don't know her (or you) from Adam, but I do know there are reasons other than "cheap" that people don't spend money on certain things. Often it's because they can't. Aside from that, I just bought mini-muffin tins. I love muffins, and I can easily eat two. Even three. But I know I won't eat four or six of the small ones. I'll still go for two or three. I don't know why, but there ya go. I can't stand, however, the mini cookies they sell now. Because I don't stop at two or three of them. It's the whole box or nothing. So I guess the mini stuff is great marketing.

I thought that said Any Soda/Pop = Belch! And I'm not even dyslexic. This soda stuff sounds like a double whammy. Corn syrup plus artificial sweeteners. Who needs both? When I first heard about the stuff I thought it would be soda with half the sugar in it, and no additional sweeteners. How naive.

Politics.... ZING! Bring me George Bush's head and then we'll talk. Ooops.

that's why I started this thread. I posted something that made a reference to the instability in this region and it was deleted...if certain people can't accept that other people have differing opinions then....well...you know.... it is a good topic for discussion BECAUSE there are strong opinions on either side. and this site is as close to a dinner table as any message board can be...that's why I say anything goes. it isn't inflammatory to state opinions...being a jerk about someone else's opinion is inflammatory. I agree that topics (such as the Middle East) that evoke strong opinions can make for truly interesting dinner table conversation, as long as everyone knows how to behave themselves. And I agree that this forum is, as you said, "as close to a dinner table as any message board can be." HOWEVER, I do not concur with your "therefore" statement, which seems to be that we should therefore discuss politics here. BECAUSE ... (1) This isn't a dinner table, it's the web. After a dinner everyone eventually gets up from the table and goes home, so no matter how hot the dinner debate might have become, it inevitably ends at that point. Not here. It just goes on and on and on, has the potential to get very ugly (we're all anonymous here, which makes things very different), and it NEVER ends (until Jason locks the thread). (2) With all due respect, this is a food board, not a dinner conversation board. Jason worked long and hard to make it that way. Gotta show at least a little respect for our master. IOW, we've been there. Didn't work. Now, what's for dinner?

Oh sure. Try living in Israel for 20 years and having even one single meal where the topics of religion and/or politics DOESN'T come up. I dare ya. I DOUBLE dare ya. Old American TV shows. Great topic for soothing the inevitable shouting matches brought about by the above. Bodily functions are best left undiscussed.

I recently finished that, and thought it was very good. I'm re-reading Les Miserables, since it's been about 20 years since I last picked it up (well it's heavy ). Definitely food related, since the whole plot revolves around the theft of a loaf of bread. And considering eGullet's most recent thread on French baguettes, that theft becomes so much more understandable ... And I always look forward to the next edition of Bon Apetit showing up in my mailbox.

I was in high school before I learned that luckshen was not an English word. Embarrassing it was. I thought everyone ate soup and luckshen. I don't like matzoh balls that are too fluffy. I like to have something to bite into. I always go out to friends for the major holidays, and I haven't made any of the traditional stuff in ages and ages. Now I really want to play around with some matzoh ball recipes. The first Pesach after my mother died (over 25 years ago) I made matzoh balls for the seder. They were hard as rocks. Well it gave us something to laugh about.

Not I, that's for sure. Although I used to be a lot more thorough than I am these days. I remember one year cleaning out the kitchen and finding a bottle of Beefeaters gin in one of the cabinets. Liquor is chametz, and I hate to throw things out, and I was living in Jerusalem at the time so I couldn't give it to any of my friends there. So what's a girl to do? You simply "sell" your chometz for the holiday through your rabbi .. he makes the transaction and then when Passover ends, he sells it back to you for your use ... my understanding of this is that while it( chometz) may stay on your premises, hidden frm view and use, you may not use it in any way for your own personal gain during the eight days .... more .... http://www.aish.com/passlaw/passlawdefault...ing_Chametz.asp Yes, I know, but I went through this stage of actually getting rid of all my chametz, I didn't like the "fiction" of selling it and then buying it back. Drinking the gin was not a problem, BTW. Re sticking knives, etc. into plants, what I heard once was this: there was actually a method of kashering knives by stabbing them into very hard, packed earth (like what you find in Israel during the summer) several times. The scraping of the knife that would result from sticking it into the hard earth and then pulling it out was seen to be a method of "kashering" it. This eventually evolved into just burying things in the ground. Ah, evolution!

That's a much more complicated question than you probably imagine, clothier. I suggest you google some sites that concern rules for kashering utensils. Sorry I can't be of more help here.

Not I, that's for sure. Although I used to be a lot more thorough than I am these days. I remember one year cleaning out the kitchen and finding a bottle of Beefeaters gin in one of the cabinets. Liquor is chametz, and I hate to throw things out, and I was living in Jerusalem at the time so I couldn't give it to any of my friends there. So what's a girl to do?

Chametz is any of the stuff you're not allowed to eat on Passover. Like bread, cake, anything leavened. Kitniyot (not Kityanot) are legumes. Beans and such. Ashkenazim (eastern European Jews) don't eat 'em, Sephardim (Spanish, North African) Jews do. Makes Passover eating a lot more versatile.

Thank God for small favors! But to "atone" for that (groan) -- Rosh Hashana is two days everywhere, even in Israel.

Just to add a little to Bloviatrix's explanation: Just about every Jewish holiday is celebrated for an extra day outside of Israel. The first day of each holiday is always on such-and-such day of the Jewish month. Passover is the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan. The Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar. In order to know when the 15th day is, you have to know when the first day is. (Duh.) As Bloviatrix said, in the olden days the calendar wasn't set. The only way to tell when the new month began was to take a look and see if the new moon was out yet or not. The new moon could appear on only one of two particular days each month. If it didn't appear on the first of those days, then the new month began on the next day. The date of the beginning of each new month was decided upon in Jerusalem (there is still a monthly ceremony to celebrate the new month). That date was relayed by messenger (no e-mail back then) to other parts of Israel. Of course it was impossible to spread this information too far (e.g., outside of Israel) on time for it to matter regarding holidays, etc. So, the actual date of the new month (the siting of the new moon) could never be certain outside of Israel. Therefore, for example, the 15th of Nissan could be one of two days. To be sure they were celebrating the holidays on the correct days, people outside of Israel celebrated them on both possible days. So, in Israel there is only one seder, since they "know" when the 15th of Nissan really is. Outside of Israel we don't know, so we're stuck celebrating two days, and having two seders. Just to be on the safe side. When I first moved to Israel I didn't know any of this, and I was shocked that there was only one seder. Now that I'm back in the States, I grumble over having to deal with a second seder. There's just no pleasing me.

Soba, you would make a perfect Seder guest. There's a lot of strange stuff going on during the Seder, and that's deliberate. The whole purpose is to get the kids interested, and, most important, to get them to ask questions. The questions are then supposed to lead into the telling of the Exodus story (aka, the Haggadah). The most interesting Seders I've been to are the ones where there are people who are not familiar with the ritual and therefore ask questions about what is going on. The kids always ask, and that is nice in itself, but there's a limit to the ways in which you can answer them. And this year the hostess inadvertently left the roast potatoes in just a tad too long, so they were a little burned -- which is just the way I like them. Worst candy -- those fruit slices win every year, no matter how much they try to "improve" them.

Actually, there are times when I think that Passover itself is the eleventh plague. Yes, there's plenty of good stuff for Passover. And of course there's plenty of home-made stuff, even better. But making fun of traditionally bad Passover candy is a tradition in itself! Hag Sameach everyone.